By Jason Kim: Super middleweight contender Edison Miranda (33-4, 29 KO’s) will challenge World Boxing Organization super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (36-2, 22 KO’s) for his title on January 9th, at the Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. For Miranda, 28, this is a big opportunity for him to win a title against arguably the weakest of the super middleweight champions. Miranda has been beaten by Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham (twice) and Andre Ward in the past two years.
In between those losses, Miranda has beaten B level fighters and somehow stayed in the top 15. Miranda was dominated by Ward earlier this year, losing in a one-sided fight. Miranda looked really bad in the fight and some people thought that would be the end of Miranda as a top competitor. However, Miranda has bounced back from that defeat, stopping Franciso Sierra in the 1st round in October to win the interim World Boxing Organization NABO super middleweight title.
Miranda failed previously in stepping it up against IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in 2006, losing a controversial 12 round decision to the Armenian star. Miranda was penalized an incredible five points in the fight for an intentional head butt and a series of low blows.
Many of the point deductions appeared to be very questionable, as Miranda’s low blows landed on the belt line and didn’t appear to be the variety that you would think should lead to having points taken off. At the same time, Abraham seemed to get away with a number of fouls of his own without once being penalized. Abraham landed elbows and low blows, among other various fouls, yet he wasn’t penalized for them.
Without the point deductions, Miranda would have had an excellent chance of beating Abraham. In their rematch held two years later, a badly weight drained Miranda lost by a 4th round TKO. Miranda was said to have taken off close to 30 pounds to make the weight for the fight, and he looked emaciated during the fight.
Shortly after this, Miranda moved up in weight and found some success in beating Manuel Esparza and Joey Vegas, stopping both early in the fight. However, Miranda was way over his head in his next bout against Andre Ward in May 2009. Ward had too much speed and movement for Miranda to cope with.
Miranda won’t have to deal with a fast fighter when he steps in the ring with Stieglitz, which is good news for Miranda. Stieglitz tends to stand directly in front of his opponents where he tries to get the better of them with power shots. His tendency to trade shots has hurt Stieglitz in losses to Alejandro Berrio and Librado Andrade. Stieglitz was stopped in both fights.